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Sierra Club Bulletin 



close to Paris. I had passed along the Marne through Chateau Thierry, 

 Epernay and the country adjacent to the railroad on my way down 

 there, and I could picture what a mess the invading army had made of 

 it. The country in its peace-time state was unspeakably beautiful. I 

 might say in passing that the destruction of nature's beauty-spots is not 

 the largest of Germany's crimes by any means, but it is one sufficiently 

 devilish to make a Sierra Club man see red. It was not to be my good 

 fortune to remain there, for about the time that I am speaking of the 

 artillery school was discontinued, the policy of the Government being 

 to concentrate such institutions in larger units. I was sent across coun- 

 try with the entire equipment for three or four hundred miles. The 

 trip was made by motor-truck and was a very beautiful one, as we 

 passed through a very rich portion of France, including the wine coun- 

 try, which is very clean and pretty, with poplar-lined canals and good 

 roads and rosy-cheeked girls (don't tell my wife). 



After completing my tour of duty and delivering this equipment to 

 the officer in charge of the school — a San Francisco boy, by the way — 

 I reported here, and am at present railhead officer in charge of all ship- 

 ments coming by rail to this camp, which is the largest artillery camp in 

 France. It is a man's job and keeps me on the jump early and late; but 

 I am afraid it has put the quietus upon my ever seeing the front while 

 the war continues. I have a half-dozen quartermaster men under me 

 and forty-five Algerians, my labor-detail, the latter speaking nothing 

 but Arabic and French. They are pretty good guessers, so they under- 

 stand what I tell them in the latter language. I spoke none at all when 

 I came over in February, so you can figure how fluent I must be now. 

 I get good work out of my men, and have the satisfaction of knowing 

 that it is work that has to be done, and if it is well done it means just 

 as much in the whole scheme of things as if I were commanding a bat- 

 tery at the front — more, really, as one battery at the front is a very 

 small proposition, while this is a very large one. I am the "main guy" 

 here. Thousands of tons of United States subsistence for man and 

 beast pass through my hands here every day, and I have issued forage 

 for as many as ten thousand horses here at times, so you see we are a 

 busy little community. I like the work, like the country and like the 

 experience, and if my wife was here I wouldn't care (from a strictly 

 selfish standpoint, understand) how long the war lasted. With best 

 wishes. Very sincerely yours, 



Chas. Royce Barney, 

 2nd Lieut. F. A. N. A., U. S. P. O., A. E. F. No. 711 



France, 



My dear Mr. Parker: ^^P^" ^^iS 



"Whiz-bang!" — this is the music that is greeting my ears as I sit in 

 our seven-by-twelve dugout writing this by the light of a candle, it is 



